Universal appeal

Androgynous fashion is nothing new - for years men's and women's clothing and accessories have taken cues from one another. Women in men's suits or men in floral shirts are hardly likely to be considered anything extraordinary.

But while other areas of fashion are still relatively bound by the laws of gender, eyewear is possibly the one area where designers are able to create products that are truly unisex. Today there are hundreds of frames that both men and women alike will find wearable.

For frames to appeal to both men and women, designers must pay considerable attention to colour and detailing. Colour is a vital factor, but with perhaps the exception of pink or violet, few colours are seen as either male or female. Blacks, browns, blues, tortoiseshell, red and metallics, such as bronze, silver and gunmetal, are often considered universal in their appeal. By the same logic, detailing is usually also gender neutral, with few floral patterns to be found. However, this does not mean boring, as demonstrated by patterns such as the circular laser cut-outs found on the Orange Eyewear Model OR172, the tiger stripes on the inside of the Ga0 frames from Less than Human, or the textured acetate sides found on the Tom Davies TD048 model.